Residential Building Permits Dip As Available Land Decreases

By Steve Bigham

Newtown’s building boom, which hit a peak between 1996 and 1998, continues to subside as local developers are finding fewer and fewer places to develop. The town’s building department has issued only 78 new housing permits through the first nine months of 2000.

“It’s definitely a lot slower now. The figures don’t lie,” noted Chief Building Inspector Tom Paternoster this week. “I think the biggest reason is not the economy, but less building lots. The good building lots are scarce. At well over 200 [building permits] a year for the past 4-5 years that’s going to happen.”

Since 1991, a total of 1,623 new homes have been constructed in Newtown.

In 1998, the building department issued an all-time high of 238 new building permits. That number dropped off significantly last year with only 197. With less than three months remaining in 2000, this year’s total may not even reach the 100 mark. It will be the lowest figure since 1991, when the nation found itself at the height of a recession. Just 61 building permits for new homes were approved that year.

But the town’s building department remains a busy place as the slow down in the construction of new homes has been offset by an increase in commercial work. The construction of new commercial sites (like The Homesteads at Newtown), as well as the renovation of existing ones (like the Montessori School), has building inspectors busy.

And, according to Land Use Agency Director Rita Macmillan, the action should pick up again soon as far as the construction of new homes.

“They’re still coming down the pike. They may not all get approved, but they’re still coming,” she said. “We get everything first, then those applications that make it through move on to the Building Department.”

Mrs Macmillan pointed to Chuck Tilson’s recently approved 41-lot subdivision, the 15-lot Rolling Woods subdivision, Raymond/Anderson’s 13 lots, the 12-lot Canterbury Woods subdivision, and the 8-lot Boulder Creek project. None of these jobs have reached the building department yet, she said.

Will the building frenzy that hit Newtown three years ago return? Probably not to the same level, Mrs Macmillan said. However, she said developers are still looking for lots and still have clients who are looking to move to Newtown. It’s just a matter of finding the land.

According to the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), Newtown’s population has risen to more than 24,500. It indicates a growth of about 1,000 new residents per year over the past 2-3 years.

The Building Department issues about 4,000 total building permits each year. That figure includes permits for electrical, heating, plumbing, roofing, commercial, and residential renovations, decks, sheds, pools, oil tanks, additions, finished basements, and new homes. New home permits represent about five percent of all permits issued each year.

In 1997, the Building Department issued 208 permits for new homes, 209 in 1996, 197 in 1995, 222 in 1994, 164 in 1993, and 127 in 1992.